A request for the Hurt/comfort and fan history people

[wickedwords]

Hiya!

As many of you know, I am helping with Fanlore, and one of the things we talked about at our last meeting was how we wanted to bring in more fandom-related history. And personally, I can't think of anything more 'fandom' related than the history of Hurt/comfort fandom.

Unfortunately, since it's a panfandom metafandom that has existed since the dawn of time (i.e., back when media fandom first broke off from science fiction fandom), it's way the heck too much for any single person to do. Seriously, if I were the type of person to work on a phd in media studies? This could be my dissertation.

So I'd like to get some people to work on the History of Hurt/comfort fandom. Things I'd like to know would be: What were the big Hurt/comfort stories in your fandom? Did any of them have huge impact? Can someone talk about 'brain damage' stories, and 'illness hurt/comfort'. The Teddy Bear stories in Highlander, "Gentle on my Mind" in Sentinel and it's follow-up by a different author. What was Hurt/hurt called back in the early days? Was it really 'get 'em'?

All I have is oral history, man. And y'all know my memory is crap.

Comments

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

You might consider contacting Leslie Fish who wrote "The End of the Hurt Comfort Syndrome" This was early Original Trek fandom and the story exposed the slashy sub-text in much hurt comfort. It caused a fanish wing-ding in the day (...though offering it to "Contact" may not have been the most politically sensitive move). I expect Paula Smith could weigh in on the subject, as well.

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

You know, I was just thinking about that story. And a bunch of the other old classic Trek stories.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Cool! You should go add some of what you remember. *g*

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Wow, it sounds like you could add a story or two, since you know about a controversy involving contact. You could just add it. *g*

[klangley56.livejournal.com]

The story exposed what *Leslie* considered the "slashy sub-text"--which is not the same thing as saying hurt/comfort could only be regarded in the light of slashy sub-text. And, as I recall, that theory was in circulation before Leslie's story, so it wasn't her story per se that caused the "wing-ding."

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Your milage for 'wing-ding' may vary. It was obtuse of Leslie to offer the story to the editors of "Contact," a dedicated H/C zine

[klangley56.livejournal.com]

I'm not disputing that this was an issue in fandom. I'm just clarifying cause and effect--that it did not happen as a result of Leslie's story, as this was a theory put forth by other fans as well.

And CONTACT, hurt-comfort and all, did publish a no foolin' K/S story in #3 (with the editors emphasising that they wanted "to look at the diverse sides of the Kirk/Spock relationship," so it really wasn't totally illogical that Leslie submitted her story to them.